PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ SELF-PERCEPTIONS OF MEMBERSHIP IN
MULTIPLE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE:
HOW SELF-IDENTITY AWARENESS CAN INFORM TEACHER EDUCATION
Open Access
Author:
Tran, Minh-Dan Thi
Graduate Program:
Curriculum and Instruction
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
None
Committee Members:
Scott Mc Donald, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Gregory John Kelly, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Scott P Mcdonald, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
community identity science education pre-service teachers teacher education activity theory
Abstract:
Pre-service science teachers were videotaped during a micro-teaching activity with small groups of middle school students and were asked to reflect on the activity. This study analyzes pre-service teachers’ oral and written reflections using cultural-historical-activity-theory (CHAT) and sociolinguistics. An inductive, category-generating process was used to code the observational foci of those reflections, which found that pre-service teachers attended to the science of the lesson, actions of the teachers and students, and observations about both teachers and students as learners. The reflections were then coded according an identity framework in which pre-service teachers identified themselves as students, teachers, and scientists. Pre-service teachers most often attended to the science content of their lessons, but they most often identified themselves as teachers rather than as scientists or students. This study proposes how reflective practice can be used to transform pre-service teachers’ identities into that of reform-based teachers (Luehmann, 2007) who blend multiple communities of practice into one community of reform-based teaching.
